Mark Duggan: IPCC says sorry for claiming he shot at police

Watchdog apologises for telling media the 29-year-old fired at police before they shot him

THE police watchdog has apologised to the family of Mark Duggan for "wrongly" telling the media he had fired at police before he was killed, the BBC reports.

On the evening of the August 2011 shooting in North London, the Metropolitan police told the IPCC that the 29-year-old had fired at officers, says The Guardian's Vikram Dodd. "The IPCC made that public to journalists, wrongly giving the impression Duggan had been killed after firing at police, without attributing the claim to the Met," Dodd says.

IPCC deputy chair, Rachel Cerfontyne, said in a statement released today that the watchdog was aware "the [Duggan] family's confidence in us and our investigation was damaged by mistakes made in the early stages - both in relation to inaccurate information we provided to the media, and the initial management of the incident".

Cerfontyne added: "I would like again to record my sincere apology to them that on the evening that Mark was fatally shot by a police officer a member of our staff wrongly led the media to believe that he had fired at police officers. I fully understand the damaging impact of this."

The IPCC said it is also looking at the way "police responded to intelligence" in relation to the Duggan shooting. It promised to interview some "key witnesses" who had previously declined to speak and those whose accounts were "inconsistent with other evidence", the Guardian says.

The watchdog will also speak formally to officers involved in the incident and expected them to co-operate, "including answering questions at interview, something they have so far refused to do".

The IPCC acknowledges that its "post-incident management" had been criticised by the Duggan family as well as some experts. It said it would provide scene management training to its investigators and in future cases of deaths following contact with the police it would aim to take control of the scene "at the earliest possible stage".